Job fair causes traffic jam

STAFFORD, Va. -- A federal job fair at the Stafford campus of the University of Mary Washington has backed up traffic as thousands of jobseekers flocked to the event.

Sponsored by U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, the job fair had attracted nearly 4,000 people by noon Monday and job seekers who were not already at the site were advised to turn back. A spokesman for Warner said the event had reached capacity and people already there were facing long waits.

The Stafford Sheriff's Office has deputies on the scene helping with crowd control and traffic.

Problem with this is that they told those folks that went to the job fair that they had to apply for a Federal job online. They stood in that line and wasted time. No recruiter is going to remember all those 4,000+ folks that showed up no matter how dazzling they were. And, what's worst is that when you apply for a Federal job online (it's hit or miss)...you may never get a call for an interview (or even a job offer). Why? Because the people that are actually getting hired for these jobs are really personal friends and family members of the selecting officials or they are internal applicants. This is the "workin' the network" part of the job search. And, that means it's already a closed shop. This is nothing new...it's been like this forever. I believe that job fairs are held during these times to take a count of the official unemployment numbers (like a head count or something) and that's why they set these up.